Alcott Readathon 2018: Little Men
Nat
When Nat (12) arrives at Plumfield a boy sliding down the banister falls off, introduces himself as Tommy Bangs, tells Demi (who’s reading on the stairs) to see to the new boy, and heads back upstairs. They only talk for a minute before Nat gets called in to see Aunt Jo. “Daisy took him by the hand with a pretty protecting air, which made Nat feel at home at once.” Ah, his future wife.
“I am glad to see you, my dear, and hope you’ll be happy here,” says Jo, while Fritz tells him dry off before the fire. At dinner Nat tells Tom how he used to play violin on the streets with his father and a guy named Nicolo until his father died.
Nat plays to great praise, gets a bath, goes to bed, and witnesses the weekly pillowfight. “What a very nice school this is!”
The Boys
Franz is 16, “steady, kind, and patient” and plays the flute. Emil is 14, “quick-tempered, restless, and enterprising, bent on going to sea.” Demi, almost 10 is quiet, serious, and bookish. Daisy takes after her mother, cheerful and domestic.
Rob, 5, is energetic but not mischievous. “Teddy was too young to play a very important part in the affairs of Plumfield, yet he had his little sphere, and filled it beautifully.”
Adolphus “Dolly” Pettingill is an ordinary boy with a stutter. Dick Brown, another 8 year old, has a humped back and is very good-natured. Now I actually like this book, but the thorn among the roses is that it hits the Disabled People Exist to Be Pitied trope, and hits it hard.
“Jack Ford was a sharp, rather a sly lad, who was sent to this school, because it was cheap.” “Ned Barker was like a thousand other boys of fourteen, all legs, blunder, and bluster. Indeed the family called him the “Blunderbuss,” and always expected to see him tumble over the chairs, bump against the tables, and knock down any small articles near him. He bragged a good deal about what he could do, but seldom did anything to prove it, was not brave, and a little given to tale-telling.”
George “Stuffy” Cole is lazy and likes to eat. “Billy Ward was what the Scotch tenderly call an “innocent,” for though thirteen years old, he was like a child of six. He had been an unusually intelligent boy, and his father had hurried him on too fast, giving him all sorts of hard lessons, keeping him at his books six hours a day, and expecting him to absorb knowledge as a Strasburg goose does the food crammed down its throat. He thought he was doing his duty, but he nearly killed the boy.” Poor Billy.
Tom is the “scrapegrace” but is so clever and penitent everyone forgives his mischief. He’s the Jackie Rodowsky of Concord.
Then there are the servants: Nursey Hummel, Silas the handyman, Asia the cook, and Mary Ann the maid.
The boy with the crutch and the “merry little quadroon” from the last chapter of LW have apparently left the school. Or LMA forgot about them.
Sunday
A fairly uninteresting chapter. The older boys go to church and then a walk; the Brookes and Bhaers visit Marmee. Tom shows Nat the many animals, including the chickens whose eggs he sells to Jo. He offers to pay Nat for collecting them.
Tom is my favorite kid and Emil is my favorite adult. Not that I don’t like grown-up Tom. I also like Franz, Nan, Josie, Ted, Rob, Dan, and Nat. And Alice.
Fritz to Demi: “Don’t use words unless you are quite sure you know what they mean.”
Stepping-Stones
Nat works hard at lessons to catch up with the rest of the boys. “Mr. Laurence did not forget him, but sent clothes and books, music and kind messages, and now and then came out to see how his boy was getting on, or took him into town to a concert; on which occasions Nat felt himself translated into the seventh heaven of bliss, for he went to Mr. Laurence’s great house, saw his pretty wife and little fairy of a daughter, had a good dinner, and was made so comfortable, that he talked and dreamed of it for days and nights afterward.”
His fault is telling small lies, and Fritz tells him that when he was a boy his grandmother cut his tongue with scissors. I have no idea whether or not that was a real punishment but I have always wondered. After another lie Fritz makes Nat hit him with a cane, a practice of Bronson Alcott’s. Tom spies on it from outside and tells the boys.
“He made me do the same thing once,” said Emil, as if confessing a crime of the deepest dye.
“And you hit him? dear old Father Bhaer? By thunder, I’d just like to see you do it now!” said Ned, collaring Emil in a fit of righteous wrath.
“It was ever so long ago. I’d rather have my head cut off than do it now,” and Emil mildly laid Ned on his back instead of cuffing him, as he would have felt it his duty to do on any less solemn occasion.
They agree not to mention it to Nat “for boys have a great deal more delicacy than they get credit for.”
Patty Pans
Daisy’s upset because the boys say she can’t play football with them. Jo says that although girls can play football and she used to, it’s too dangerous for Daisy to play with a dozen boys and she’ll find her a new game.
Meg: “Be a good child, my Daisy, and learn the nice new play Aunty has got for you. It’s a most useful and interesting one, and it is very kind of her to play it with you, because she does not like it very well herself.”
A wide seat ran round the three sides of the window; on one side hung and stood all sorts of little pots and pans, gridirons and skillets; on the other side a small dinner and tea set; and on the middle part a cooking-stove. Not a tin one, that was of no use, but a real iron stove, big enough to cook for a large family of very hungry dolls. But the best of it was that a real fire burned in it, real steam came out of the nose of the little tea-kettle, and the lid of the little boiler actually danced a jig, the water inside bubbled so hard. A pane of glass had been taken out and replaced by a sheet of tin, with a hole for the small funnel, and real smoke went sailing away outside so naturally, that it did one’s heart good to see it.
Daisy makes pie; Kit the dog delivers a basket with two bits of steak (doll’s pounds), a baked pear, a small cake, and paper with them on which Asia had scrawled, “For Missy’s lunch, if her cookin’ don’t turn out well.”
“I don’t want any of her old pears and things; my cooking will turn out well, and I’ll have a splendid dinner; see if I don’t!” cried Daisy, indignantly. Come on, Daisy, the woman did something nice for you on top of preparing meals for 15 people. The pies burn anyway.
Fritz to Jo: “That last hit was for me, sharp woman. I accept it, for it is true; but if I had married thee for thy cooking, heart’s dearest, I should have fared badly all these years,”
OTP OTP OTP.
A Fire Brand
Nat: My friend Dan is here.
Jo: Wait what?
Nat: I thought you wanted boys to live here.
Jo: Yes, but I like advance notice.
Nat: I can sleep in the barn and he can have my bed!
Jo: well how can I resist that
Dan stays for a week and makes friends with baby Teddy. He gets into a physical fight with Emil, has a bull-fight with the cow and get punished for it. Then one night when Fritz is gone he, Nat, and Tom have some cards and cigars. Tom leaves a cigar under the bed and it catches fire in the night. Franz rescues them.
That’s the last straw, and Dan gets sent to a Mr. Page. Dan heard Mrs. Bhaer sigh, and he wanted to ask for one more trial himself, but his pride would not let him, and he came out with the hard look on his face, shook hands without a word, and drove away with Mr. Bhaer, leaving Nat and Mrs. Jo to look after him with tears in their eyes. Oh, I LOVE that pride. It’s one of my favorite character traits.
But Dan runs away from Page a few weeks later. I admit I used to resent Dan for being the fandom’s focus, but I grew to like him on my last reread. I think that was 2009.
Naughty Nan
Annie “Nan” Harding arrives and is the greatest character ever. She made Silas tattoo an anchor on her arm like his, and begged hard to have a blue star on each cheek, but he dared not do it, though she coaxed and scolded till the soft-hearted fellow longed to give in. She rode every animal on the place, from the big horse Andy to the cross pig, from whom she was rescued with difficulty. Whatever the boys dared her to do she instantly attempted, no matter how dangerous it might be, and they were never tired of testing her courage.
It’s a short chapter, only 3% on my Kindle app.
Pranks and Plays
As there is no particular plan to this story, except to describe a few scenes in the life at Plumfield for the amusement of certain little persons, we will gently ramble along in this chapter and tell some of the pastimes of Mrs. Jo’s boys. I beg leave to assure my honored readers that most of the incidents are taken from real life, and that the oddest are the truest; for no person, no matter how vivid an imagination he may have, can invent anything half so droll as the freaks and fancies that originate in the lively brains of little people.
Amy painted Daisy paper dolls ♥
They sacrifice some toys to the “Naughty Kittymouse.” Does any child who reads this book forget the description of the doll burning?
Daisy’s Ball
Daisy and Nan invite Tom, Demi, and Nat to a ball with the promise of something good to eat. Nan wears “a wreath of artificial flowers, a pair of old pink slippers, a yellow scarf, a green muslin skirt, and a fan made of feathers from the duster; also, as a last touch of elegance, a smelling-bottle without any smell in it.”
The ball goes well until Tom steals some cakes and they fall on the floor. Jo insists the boys must make up for it, so they make the girls and Jo kites and fly them on Pennyroyal Hill. The last time Jo flew a kite, she tells them, she was 15 and playing with Laurie. She calls himself “an old lady” and as a kid I took that literally, but she’s only in her early thirties.
Home Again
One balmy night when the little lads were in bed, the elder ones bathing down at the brook, and Mrs. Bhaer undressing Teddy in her parlor, he suddenly cried out, “Oh, my Danny!” and pointed to the window, where the moon shone brightly. “No, lovey, he is not there, it was the pretty moon,” said his mother. “No, no, Danny at a window; Teddy saw him,” persisted baby, much excited.
Jo calls for Dan and gets disappointed when there’s no answer. But when she shuts up the house she finds him sleeping on a haystack. “Mother Bhaer, I’ve come home,” he says and I melt.
She washes his injured foot and he kisses her. He’s been collecting rocks and bugs, learning from a man named Mr. Thoreau Hyde.
“I have a regard for children’s little treasures, and think they should be treated respectfully.” How much do I love Jo?
Uncle Teddy
Oh, I forgot there was a whole chapter about Laurie. Awesome. While the boys play with little Bess Laurie asks after Dan’s foot “like an old acquaintance, though he had only seen him once or twice before.”
Laurie went to Egypt at some point.
“She began early, you see. Poor thing! she was only fifteen when she took me, and I led her such a life, it’s a wonder she isn’t wrinkled and gray, and quite worn out,” and Mr. Laurie looked up at her laughing. “Don’t, Teddy; I won’t have you abuse yourself so;” and Mrs. Jo stroked the curly black head at her knee as affectionately as ever, for, in spite of everything, Teddy was her boy still. <333
Also he brings cookies that Marmee and Hannah made.
Here Mrs. Jo’s remarks were cut short by the appearance of Nan tearing round the corner at a break-neck pace, driving a mettlesome team of four boys, and followed by Daisy trundling Bess in a wheelbarrow. Hats off, hair flying, whip cracking, and barrow bumping, up they came in a cloud of dust, looking as wild a set of little hoydens as one would wish to see. Repeating jokes, LMA? I suppose lots of authors do that.
If you think that hard, how would you like to have this subject given to you, as it was to a girl of thirteen:- A conversation between Themistocles, Aristides, and Pericles on the proposed appropriation of the funds of the confederacy of Delos for the ornamentation of Athens?” Oh no you didn’t Bronson Alcott.
Huckleberries
Rob isn’t allowed to go berrypicking at first because it’s a long walk, then Silas comes with the cart so the kids all ride there, even Franz. Nan and Rob climb over a wall to get some particularly juicy ones.
“Oh, dear! you said you’d take good care of me,” he sighed, as the sun seemed to drop behind the hill all of a sudden.
They miss the ride home at five o’clock. Unable to find the correct path home, they attempt to catch a firefly to cook frogs and milk an empty cow. Jo, Fritz, Silas, and Dan search for several pages.
The next day Jo ties Nan to the sofa, the same punishment Marmee once gave her. Nan of course unties the knot but hear Jo say “No, I don’t think she will run away now; she is an honorable little girl, and knows that I do it to help her.” So she ties herself back again. Rob decides to join her.
Goldilocks
Which is Bess’ nickname. She visits Plumfield for a week and all the boys act very well-behaved. LMA remembers that Dick and Dolly exist - they make her whistles.
Many a man remembers some pretty child who has made a place in his heart and kept her memory alive by the simple magic of her innocence; these little men were just learning to feel this power, and to love it for its gentle influence, not ashamed to let the small hand lead them, nor to own their loyalty to womankind, even in the bud. Blech.
Damon and Pythias
Ooh, this is a good chapter.
Somebody steals a dollar from Tom. Jack suggests Silas and Tom says how dare you. Each boy denies stealing it and everyone suspects Nat, who was with Tom when he last saw it. Except Daisy, who slaps Demi for it. There are moments when I like her.
Ned suggests to Nat that Dan took it, Nat defends his friend, and Dan pushes Ned into a brook.
Then someone leaves four quarters among Tom’s chickens with a note printed (instead of cursive). Dan is given away from a neighbor returns the book he sold because she realized it was worth more than a dollar. Jo is very upset and worries about him running away again.
Dan saves Jack from falling off a tree, prompting Jack to confess and leave the school. Fritz tells the boys the chapter title story, which LMA doesn’t describe
In the Willow
Nan no longer declared that she would be engine-driver or a blacksmith, but turned her mind to farming, and found in it a vent for the energy bottled up in her active little body. It did not quite satisfy her, however; for her sage and sweet marjoram were dumb things, and could not thank her for her care. She wanted something human to love, work for, and protect, and was never happier than when the little boys brought their cut fingers, bumped heads, or bruised joints for her to “mend up.” Seeing this, Mrs. Jo proposed that she should learn how to do it nicely, and Nursey had an apt pupil in bandaging, plastering, and fomenting.
Nan takes out Emil’s splinter with Daisy’s needle.
Tom and Nat make plans to buy Dan a microscope.
Dan and Demi talk about the leaves they collected, a woman Dan knew who rescued cats, and Being Good. Demi leaves to play with Daisy and Jo climbs up the willow to see Dan. Teddy surprises the household by catching a fish.
Ned gives Dick and Dolly candy to catch grasshoppers to put in Tom’s bed.
Jack comes back because his uncle made him.
Taming the Colt
Dan secretly breaks a horse that Laurie is keeping in the field. Silas sees him and tells Fritz. The horse, like a character in Eight Cousins, is called Prince Charlie.
“I am taming a colt too, and I think I shall succeed as well as you if I am as patient and persevering,” said Mrs. Jo, smiling so significantly at him, that Dan understood and answered, laughing, yet in earnest,- “We won’t jump over the fence and run away, but stay and let them make a handsome, useful span of us, hey, Charlie?”
Composition Day
Nan: “Some boys do not get up when called, and Mary Ann squeezes the water out of a wet sponge on their faces, and it makes them so mad they wake up.”
Emil: “Seems to me you are wandering from the subject.”
Demi: “I should like to be a beautiful butterfly, All yellow, and blue, and green, and red; But I should not like To have Dan put camphor on my poor little head.”
Tom forgot to do it so he reads a letter to the grandmother. His middle name is Buckminster.
Dick and Dolly did not write, but were encouraged to observe the habits of animals and insects, and report what they saw. Dick liked this, and always had a great deal to say; so, when his name was called, he marched up, and, looking at the audience with his bright confiding eyes, told his little story so earnestly that no one smiled at his crooked body, because the “straight soul” shone through it beautifully. If only he had some characterization to go with his straight soul.
Nat actually brings an owl for his owl composition. He and Tom give Dan the microscope.
Crops
Jack and Ned grow potatoes to sell, Franz and Emil corn to give Uncle, Nat beans, Tom thistles for the donkey, Demi lettuce and turnips, Daisy flowers, Nan herbs, and parsnips and carrots for Dick and Dolly. Rob grows a giant pumpkin.
Poor Billy had planted cucumbers, but unfortunately hoed them up and left the pig-weed. This mistake grieved him very much for ten minutes, then he forgot all about it, and sowed a handful of bright buttons which he had collected, evidently thinking in his feeble mind that they were money, and would come up and multiply, so that he might make many quarters, as Tommy did. No one disturbed him, and he did what he liked with his plot, which soon looked as if a series of small earthquakes had stirred it up. When the general harvest-day came, he would have had nothing but stones and weeds to show, if kind old Asia had not hung half-a-dozen oranges on the dead tree he had stuck up in the middle. Asia is awesome.
Stuffy grows melons to sell, and the boys are so annoyed that Ned, Emil, and Tom carve PIG into them. When the pudding was eaten, and the fruit was put on, Mary Ann re-appeared in a high state of giggle, bearing a large watermelon; Silas followed with another; and Dan brought up the rear with a third. One was placed before each of the three guilty lads; and they read on the smooth green skin this addition to their work, “With the compliments of the PIG.” Every one else read it also, and the whole table was in a roar, for the trick had been whispered about; so every one understood the sequel. Emil, Ned, and Tommy did not know where to look, and had not a word to say for themselves; so they wisely joined in the laugh, cut up the melons, and handed them round, saying, what all the rest agreed to, that Stuffy had taken a wise and merry way to return good for evil.
Dan was away during planting season so he collects nuts. Rob and Teddy have a butternut tree all to themselves. Some squirrels steal the nuts and they steal them back.
John Brooke
Fritz: “He was only ill a few hours, and died as he has lived, so cheerfully, so peacefully, that it seems a sin to mar the beauty of it with any violent or selfish grief. We were in time to say good-by: and Daisy and Demi were in his arms as he fell asleep on Aunt Meg’s breast.” Awww.
Everyone is sad, for John Brooke was the best person ever.
Round the Fire
Trust me, this is the best chapter in the book. It’s now October and the kids hang out before the fireplace, eating nuts and popcorn. My fave is briefly problematic:
“Why is Billy like this nut?” asked Emil, who was frequently inspired with bad conundrums.
“Because he is cracked,” answered Ned.
“That’s not fair; you mustn’t make fun of Billy, because he can’t hit back again. It’s mean,” cried Dan, smashing a nut wrathfully.
“To what family of insects does Blak
e belong?” asked peacemaker Franz, seeing that Emil looked ashamed and Dan lowering. “Gnats,” answered Jack.
“Why is Daisy like a bee?” cried Nat, who had been wrapt in thought for several minutes. “Because she is queen of the hive,” said Dan.
“No.”
“Because she is sweet.”
“Bees are not sweet.”
“Give it up.”
“Because she makes sweet things, is always busy, and likes flowers,” said Nat, piling up his boyish compliments till Daisy blushed like a rosy clover.
Franz proposes that anyone who enters the room shall tell them a story. Silas brings in wood and tells them that when he was in the war, he had a horse he really liked. But it got injured and he had to mercy kill it. It’s really quite touching.
Jo tells them a dull one about a boy who stole tarts. Jack recognizes himself and I feel sorry for him. Rob hears them having fun and gets out of bed. Jo tells him he can stay up until he finishes his popcorn and he starts eating it very slowly.
Mary Ann walks by but Silas has warned her of the game. Fritz comes it and tells them about a guy who didn’t rob Mr. March.
How do you tell which bite of an apple is the best??
Thanksgiving
This yearly festival was always kept at Plumfield in the good old-fashioned way, and nothing was allowed to interfere with it. For days beforehand, the little girls helped Asia and Mrs. Jo in store-room and kitchen, making pies and puddings, sorting fruit, dusting dishes, and being very busy and immensely important. The boys hovered on the outskirts of the forbidden ground, sniffing the savory odors, peeping in at the mysterious performances, and occasionally being permitted to taste some delicacy in the process of preparation. Why don’t the boys get to learn to make pies? Yeah, I know it’s the era, but the family’s supposed to be progressive.
Rob’s giant pumpkin makes a dozen pies and Fritz wonders where the rest of it is and everyone giggles and says it’s a surprise.
After dinner the kids put on a show. Mr. Hyde comes to see Dan. It ends with a surprise performance of Cinderella with Bess as the Princess, Nan as the godmother and stepsister, Daisy as the other stepsister, and the pumpkin for the coach. Rob is the Prince.
Nat plays a song that Laurie composed. Dancing afterward - Amy partners with Dan and Laurie with Asia. &OTP; Jo and Laurie talk over what a success the school is and what a good musician Nat is. Sentimental ending, yes. I like a bit of sentiment.
Next month: Work. Squee.
This entry was originally posted at https://nocowardsoul.dreamwidth.org/40915.html
When Nat (12) arrives at Plumfield a boy sliding down the banister falls off, introduces himself as Tommy Bangs, tells Demi (who’s reading on the stairs) to see to the new boy, and heads back upstairs. They only talk for a minute before Nat gets called in to see Aunt Jo. “Daisy took him by the hand with a pretty protecting air, which made Nat feel at home at once.” Ah, his future wife.
“I am glad to see you, my dear, and hope you’ll be happy here,” says Jo, while Fritz tells him dry off before the fire. At dinner Nat tells Tom how he used to play violin on the streets with his father and a guy named Nicolo until his father died.
Nat plays to great praise, gets a bath, goes to bed, and witnesses the weekly pillowfight. “What a very nice school this is!”
The Boys
Franz is 16, “steady, kind, and patient” and plays the flute. Emil is 14, “quick-tempered, restless, and enterprising, bent on going to sea.” Demi, almost 10 is quiet, serious, and bookish. Daisy takes after her mother, cheerful and domestic.
Rob, 5, is energetic but not mischievous. “Teddy was too young to play a very important part in the affairs of Plumfield, yet he had his little sphere, and filled it beautifully.”
Adolphus “Dolly” Pettingill is an ordinary boy with a stutter. Dick Brown, another 8 year old, has a humped back and is very good-natured. Now I actually like this book, but the thorn among the roses is that it hits the Disabled People Exist to Be Pitied trope, and hits it hard.
“Jack Ford was a sharp, rather a sly lad, who was sent to this school, because it was cheap.” “Ned Barker was like a thousand other boys of fourteen, all legs, blunder, and bluster. Indeed the family called him the “Blunderbuss,” and always expected to see him tumble over the chairs, bump against the tables, and knock down any small articles near him. He bragged a good deal about what he could do, but seldom did anything to prove it, was not brave, and a little given to tale-telling.”
George “Stuffy” Cole is lazy and likes to eat. “Billy Ward was what the Scotch tenderly call an “innocent,” for though thirteen years old, he was like a child of six. He had been an unusually intelligent boy, and his father had hurried him on too fast, giving him all sorts of hard lessons, keeping him at his books six hours a day, and expecting him to absorb knowledge as a Strasburg goose does the food crammed down its throat. He thought he was doing his duty, but he nearly killed the boy.” Poor Billy.
Tom is the “scrapegrace” but is so clever and penitent everyone forgives his mischief. He’s the Jackie Rodowsky of Concord.
Then there are the servants: Nursey Hummel, Silas the handyman, Asia the cook, and Mary Ann the maid.
The boy with the crutch and the “merry little quadroon” from the last chapter of LW have apparently left the school. Or LMA forgot about them.
Sunday
A fairly uninteresting chapter. The older boys go to church and then a walk; the Brookes and Bhaers visit Marmee. Tom shows Nat the many animals, including the chickens whose eggs he sells to Jo. He offers to pay Nat for collecting them.
Tom is my favorite kid and Emil is my favorite adult. Not that I don’t like grown-up Tom. I also like Franz, Nan, Josie, Ted, Rob, Dan, and Nat. And Alice.
Fritz to Demi: “Don’t use words unless you are quite sure you know what they mean.”
Stepping-Stones
Nat works hard at lessons to catch up with the rest of the boys. “Mr. Laurence did not forget him, but sent clothes and books, music and kind messages, and now and then came out to see how his boy was getting on, or took him into town to a concert; on which occasions Nat felt himself translated into the seventh heaven of bliss, for he went to Mr. Laurence’s great house, saw his pretty wife and little fairy of a daughter, had a good dinner, and was made so comfortable, that he talked and dreamed of it for days and nights afterward.”
His fault is telling small lies, and Fritz tells him that when he was a boy his grandmother cut his tongue with scissors. I have no idea whether or not that was a real punishment but I have always wondered. After another lie Fritz makes Nat hit him with a cane, a practice of Bronson Alcott’s. Tom spies on it from outside and tells the boys.
“He made me do the same thing once,” said Emil, as if confessing a crime of the deepest dye.
“And you hit him? dear old Father Bhaer? By thunder, I’d just like to see you do it now!” said Ned, collaring Emil in a fit of righteous wrath.
“It was ever so long ago. I’d rather have my head cut off than do it now,” and Emil mildly laid Ned on his back instead of cuffing him, as he would have felt it his duty to do on any less solemn occasion.
They agree not to mention it to Nat “for boys have a great deal more delicacy than they get credit for.”
Patty Pans
Daisy’s upset because the boys say she can’t play football with them. Jo says that although girls can play football and she used to, it’s too dangerous for Daisy to play with a dozen boys and she’ll find her a new game.
Meg: “Be a good child, my Daisy, and learn the nice new play Aunty has got for you. It’s a most useful and interesting one, and it is very kind of her to play it with you, because she does not like it very well herself.”
A wide seat ran round the three sides of the window; on one side hung and stood all sorts of little pots and pans, gridirons and skillets; on the other side a small dinner and tea set; and on the middle part a cooking-stove. Not a tin one, that was of no use, but a real iron stove, big enough to cook for a large family of very hungry dolls. But the best of it was that a real fire burned in it, real steam came out of the nose of the little tea-kettle, and the lid of the little boiler actually danced a jig, the water inside bubbled so hard. A pane of glass had been taken out and replaced by a sheet of tin, with a hole for the small funnel, and real smoke went sailing away outside so naturally, that it did one’s heart good to see it.
Daisy makes pie; Kit the dog delivers a basket with two bits of steak (doll’s pounds), a baked pear, a small cake, and paper with them on which Asia had scrawled, “For Missy’s lunch, if her cookin’ don’t turn out well.”
“I don’t want any of her old pears and things; my cooking will turn out well, and I’ll have a splendid dinner; see if I don’t!” cried Daisy, indignantly. Come on, Daisy, the woman did something nice for you on top of preparing meals for 15 people. The pies burn anyway.
Fritz to Jo: “That last hit was for me, sharp woman. I accept it, for it is true; but if I had married thee for thy cooking, heart’s dearest, I should have fared badly all these years,”
OTP OTP OTP.
A Fire Brand
Nat: My friend Dan is here.
Jo: Wait what?
Nat: I thought you wanted boys to live here.
Jo: Yes, but I like advance notice.
Nat: I can sleep in the barn and he can have my bed!
Jo: well how can I resist that
Dan stays for a week and makes friends with baby Teddy. He gets into a physical fight with Emil, has a bull-fight with the cow and get punished for it. Then one night when Fritz is gone he, Nat, and Tom have some cards and cigars. Tom leaves a cigar under the bed and it catches fire in the night. Franz rescues them.
That’s the last straw, and Dan gets sent to a Mr. Page. Dan heard Mrs. Bhaer sigh, and he wanted to ask for one more trial himself, but his pride would not let him, and he came out with the hard look on his face, shook hands without a word, and drove away with Mr. Bhaer, leaving Nat and Mrs. Jo to look after him with tears in their eyes. Oh, I LOVE that pride. It’s one of my favorite character traits.
But Dan runs away from Page a few weeks later. I admit I used to resent Dan for being the fandom’s focus, but I grew to like him on my last reread. I think that was 2009.
Naughty Nan
Annie “Nan” Harding arrives and is the greatest character ever. She made Silas tattoo an anchor on her arm like his, and begged hard to have a blue star on each cheek, but he dared not do it, though she coaxed and scolded till the soft-hearted fellow longed to give in. She rode every animal on the place, from the big horse Andy to the cross pig, from whom she was rescued with difficulty. Whatever the boys dared her to do she instantly attempted, no matter how dangerous it might be, and they were never tired of testing her courage.
It’s a short chapter, only 3% on my Kindle app.
Pranks and Plays
As there is no particular plan to this story, except to describe a few scenes in the life at Plumfield for the amusement of certain little persons, we will gently ramble along in this chapter and tell some of the pastimes of Mrs. Jo’s boys. I beg leave to assure my honored readers that most of the incidents are taken from real life, and that the oddest are the truest; for no person, no matter how vivid an imagination he may have, can invent anything half so droll as the freaks and fancies that originate in the lively brains of little people.
Amy painted Daisy paper dolls ♥
They sacrifice some toys to the “Naughty Kittymouse.” Does any child who reads this book forget the description of the doll burning?
Daisy’s Ball
Daisy and Nan invite Tom, Demi, and Nat to a ball with the promise of something good to eat. Nan wears “a wreath of artificial flowers, a pair of old pink slippers, a yellow scarf, a green muslin skirt, and a fan made of feathers from the duster; also, as a last touch of elegance, a smelling-bottle without any smell in it.”
The ball goes well until Tom steals some cakes and they fall on the floor. Jo insists the boys must make up for it, so they make the girls and Jo kites and fly them on Pennyroyal Hill. The last time Jo flew a kite, she tells them, she was 15 and playing with Laurie. She calls himself “an old lady” and as a kid I took that literally, but she’s only in her early thirties.
Home Again
One balmy night when the little lads were in bed, the elder ones bathing down at the brook, and Mrs. Bhaer undressing Teddy in her parlor, he suddenly cried out, “Oh, my Danny!” and pointed to the window, where the moon shone brightly. “No, lovey, he is not there, it was the pretty moon,” said his mother. “No, no, Danny at a window; Teddy saw him,” persisted baby, much excited.
Jo calls for Dan and gets disappointed when there’s no answer. But when she shuts up the house she finds him sleeping on a haystack. “Mother Bhaer, I’ve come home,” he says and I melt.
She washes his injured foot and he kisses her. He’s been collecting rocks and bugs, learning from a man named Mr. Thoreau Hyde.
“I have a regard for children’s little treasures, and think they should be treated respectfully.” How much do I love Jo?
Uncle Teddy
Oh, I forgot there was a whole chapter about Laurie. Awesome. While the boys play with little Bess Laurie asks after Dan’s foot “like an old acquaintance, though he had only seen him once or twice before.”
Laurie went to Egypt at some point.
“She began early, you see. Poor thing! she was only fifteen when she took me, and I led her such a life, it’s a wonder she isn’t wrinkled and gray, and quite worn out,” and Mr. Laurie looked up at her laughing. “Don’t, Teddy; I won’t have you abuse yourself so;” and Mrs. Jo stroked the curly black head at her knee as affectionately as ever, for, in spite of everything, Teddy was her boy still. <333
Also he brings cookies that Marmee and Hannah made.
Here Mrs. Jo’s remarks were cut short by the appearance of Nan tearing round the corner at a break-neck pace, driving a mettlesome team of four boys, and followed by Daisy trundling Bess in a wheelbarrow. Hats off, hair flying, whip cracking, and barrow bumping, up they came in a cloud of dust, looking as wild a set of little hoydens as one would wish to see. Repeating jokes, LMA? I suppose lots of authors do that.
If you think that hard, how would you like to have this subject given to you, as it was to a girl of thirteen:- A conversation between Themistocles, Aristides, and Pericles on the proposed appropriation of the funds of the confederacy of Delos for the ornamentation of Athens?” Oh no you didn’t Bronson Alcott.
Huckleberries
Rob isn’t allowed to go berrypicking at first because it’s a long walk, then Silas comes with the cart so the kids all ride there, even Franz. Nan and Rob climb over a wall to get some particularly juicy ones.
“Oh, dear! you said you’d take good care of me,” he sighed, as the sun seemed to drop behind the hill all of a sudden.
They miss the ride home at five o’clock. Unable to find the correct path home, they attempt to catch a firefly to cook frogs and milk an empty cow. Jo, Fritz, Silas, and Dan search for several pages.
The next day Jo ties Nan to the sofa, the same punishment Marmee once gave her. Nan of course unties the knot but hear Jo say “No, I don’t think she will run away now; she is an honorable little girl, and knows that I do it to help her.” So she ties herself back again. Rob decides to join her.
Goldilocks
Which is Bess’ nickname. She visits Plumfield for a week and all the boys act very well-behaved. LMA remembers that Dick and Dolly exist - they make her whistles.
Many a man remembers some pretty child who has made a place in his heart and kept her memory alive by the simple magic of her innocence; these little men were just learning to feel this power, and to love it for its gentle influence, not ashamed to let the small hand lead them, nor to own their loyalty to womankind, even in the bud. Blech.
Damon and Pythias
Ooh, this is a good chapter.
Somebody steals a dollar from Tom. Jack suggests Silas and Tom says how dare you. Each boy denies stealing it and everyone suspects Nat, who was with Tom when he last saw it. Except Daisy, who slaps Demi for it. There are moments when I like her.
Ned suggests to Nat that Dan took it, Nat defends his friend, and Dan pushes Ned into a brook.
Then someone leaves four quarters among Tom’s chickens with a note printed (instead of cursive). Dan is given away from a neighbor returns the book he sold because she realized it was worth more than a dollar. Jo is very upset and worries about him running away again.
Dan saves Jack from falling off a tree, prompting Jack to confess and leave the school. Fritz tells the boys the chapter title story, which LMA doesn’t describe
In the Willow
Nan no longer declared that she would be engine-driver or a blacksmith, but turned her mind to farming, and found in it a vent for the energy bottled up in her active little body. It did not quite satisfy her, however; for her sage and sweet marjoram were dumb things, and could not thank her for her care. She wanted something human to love, work for, and protect, and was never happier than when the little boys brought their cut fingers, bumped heads, or bruised joints for her to “mend up.” Seeing this, Mrs. Jo proposed that she should learn how to do it nicely, and Nursey had an apt pupil in bandaging, plastering, and fomenting.
Nan takes out Emil’s splinter with Daisy’s needle.
Tom and Nat make plans to buy Dan a microscope.
Dan and Demi talk about the leaves they collected, a woman Dan knew who rescued cats, and Being Good. Demi leaves to play with Daisy and Jo climbs up the willow to see Dan. Teddy surprises the household by catching a fish.
Ned gives Dick and Dolly candy to catch grasshoppers to put in Tom’s bed.
Jack comes back because his uncle made him.
Taming the Colt
Dan secretly breaks a horse that Laurie is keeping in the field. Silas sees him and tells Fritz. The horse, like a character in Eight Cousins, is called Prince Charlie.
“I am taming a colt too, and I think I shall succeed as well as you if I am as patient and persevering,” said Mrs. Jo, smiling so significantly at him, that Dan understood and answered, laughing, yet in earnest,- “We won’t jump over the fence and run away, but stay and let them make a handsome, useful span of us, hey, Charlie?”
Composition Day
Nan: “Some boys do not get up when called, and Mary Ann squeezes the water out of a wet sponge on their faces, and it makes them so mad they wake up.”
Emil: “Seems to me you are wandering from the subject.”
Demi: “I should like to be a beautiful butterfly, All yellow, and blue, and green, and red; But I should not like To have Dan put camphor on my poor little head.”
Tom forgot to do it so he reads a letter to the grandmother. His middle name is Buckminster.
Dick and Dolly did not write, but were encouraged to observe the habits of animals and insects, and report what they saw. Dick liked this, and always had a great deal to say; so, when his name was called, he marched up, and, looking at the audience with his bright confiding eyes, told his little story so earnestly that no one smiled at his crooked body, because the “straight soul” shone through it beautifully. If only he had some characterization to go with his straight soul.
Nat actually brings an owl for his owl composition. He and Tom give Dan the microscope.
Crops
Jack and Ned grow potatoes to sell, Franz and Emil corn to give Uncle, Nat beans, Tom thistles for the donkey, Demi lettuce and turnips, Daisy flowers, Nan herbs, and parsnips and carrots for Dick and Dolly. Rob grows a giant pumpkin.
Poor Billy had planted cucumbers, but unfortunately hoed them up and left the pig-weed. This mistake grieved him very much for ten minutes, then he forgot all about it, and sowed a handful of bright buttons which he had collected, evidently thinking in his feeble mind that they were money, and would come up and multiply, so that he might make many quarters, as Tommy did. No one disturbed him, and he did what he liked with his plot, which soon looked as if a series of small earthquakes had stirred it up. When the general harvest-day came, he would have had nothing but stones and weeds to show, if kind old Asia had not hung half-a-dozen oranges on the dead tree he had stuck up in the middle. Asia is awesome.
Stuffy grows melons to sell, and the boys are so annoyed that Ned, Emil, and Tom carve PIG into them. When the pudding was eaten, and the fruit was put on, Mary Ann re-appeared in a high state of giggle, bearing a large watermelon; Silas followed with another; and Dan brought up the rear with a third. One was placed before each of the three guilty lads; and they read on the smooth green skin this addition to their work, “With the compliments of the PIG.” Every one else read it also, and the whole table was in a roar, for the trick had been whispered about; so every one understood the sequel. Emil, Ned, and Tommy did not know where to look, and had not a word to say for themselves; so they wisely joined in the laugh, cut up the melons, and handed them round, saying, what all the rest agreed to, that Stuffy had taken a wise and merry way to return good for evil.
Dan was away during planting season so he collects nuts. Rob and Teddy have a butternut tree all to themselves. Some squirrels steal the nuts and they steal them back.
John Brooke
Fritz: “He was only ill a few hours, and died as he has lived, so cheerfully, so peacefully, that it seems a sin to mar the beauty of it with any violent or selfish grief. We were in time to say good-by: and Daisy and Demi were in his arms as he fell asleep on Aunt Meg’s breast.” Awww.
Everyone is sad, for John Brooke was the best person ever.
Round the Fire
Trust me, this is the best chapter in the book. It’s now October and the kids hang out before the fireplace, eating nuts and popcorn. My fave is briefly problematic:
“Why is Billy like this nut?” asked Emil, who was frequently inspired with bad conundrums.
“Because he is cracked,” answered Ned.
“That’s not fair; you mustn’t make fun of Billy, because he can’t hit back again. It’s mean,” cried Dan, smashing a nut wrathfully.
“To what family of insects does Blak
e belong?” asked peacemaker Franz, seeing that Emil looked ashamed and Dan lowering. “Gnats,” answered Jack.
“Why is Daisy like a bee?” cried Nat, who had been wrapt in thought for several minutes. “Because she is queen of the hive,” said Dan.
“No.”
“Because she is sweet.”
“Bees are not sweet.”
“Give it up.”
“Because she makes sweet things, is always busy, and likes flowers,” said Nat, piling up his boyish compliments till Daisy blushed like a rosy clover.
Franz proposes that anyone who enters the room shall tell them a story. Silas brings in wood and tells them that when he was in the war, he had a horse he really liked. But it got injured and he had to mercy kill it. It’s really quite touching.
Jo tells them a dull one about a boy who stole tarts. Jack recognizes himself and I feel sorry for him. Rob hears them having fun and gets out of bed. Jo tells him he can stay up until he finishes his popcorn and he starts eating it very slowly.
Mary Ann walks by but Silas has warned her of the game. Fritz comes it and tells them about a guy who didn’t rob Mr. March.
How do you tell which bite of an apple is the best??
Thanksgiving
This yearly festival was always kept at Plumfield in the good old-fashioned way, and nothing was allowed to interfere with it. For days beforehand, the little girls helped Asia and Mrs. Jo in store-room and kitchen, making pies and puddings, sorting fruit, dusting dishes, and being very busy and immensely important. The boys hovered on the outskirts of the forbidden ground, sniffing the savory odors, peeping in at the mysterious performances, and occasionally being permitted to taste some delicacy in the process of preparation. Why don’t the boys get to learn to make pies? Yeah, I know it’s the era, but the family’s supposed to be progressive.
Rob’s giant pumpkin makes a dozen pies and Fritz wonders where the rest of it is and everyone giggles and says it’s a surprise.
After dinner the kids put on a show. Mr. Hyde comes to see Dan. It ends with a surprise performance of Cinderella with Bess as the Princess, Nan as the godmother and stepsister, Daisy as the other stepsister, and the pumpkin for the coach. Rob is the Prince.
Nat plays a song that Laurie composed. Dancing afterward - Amy partners with Dan and Laurie with Asia. &OTP; Jo and Laurie talk over what a success the school is and what a good musician Nat is. Sentimental ending, yes. I like a bit of sentiment.
Next month: Work. Squee.
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