Page 108 - LITTLE WOMEN

Little Women

occasional lifts over hard parts. She was a nimble little
needlewoman, and they were finished before anyone got
tired of them. Then she wrote a short, simple note, and
with Laurie’s help, got them smuggled onto the study

table one morning before the old gentleman was up.
When this excitement was over, Beth waited to see
what would happen. All day passed a a part of the next
before any acknowledgement arrived, and she was
beginning to fear she had offended her crochety friend.
On the afternoon of the second day, she went out to do
an errand, and give poor Joanna, the invalid doll, her daily
exercise. As she came up the street, on her return, she saw
three, yes, four heads popping in and out of the parlor
windows, and the moment they saw her, several hands
were waved, and several joyful voices screamed...
‘Here’s a letter from the old gentleman! Come quick,
and read it!’
‘Oh, Beth, he’s sent you...’ began Amy, gesticulating
with unseemly energy, but she got no further, for Jo
quenched her by slamming down the window.
Beth hurried on in a flutter of suspense. At the door
her sisters seized and bore her to the parlor in a triumphal
procession, all pointing and all saying at once, ‘Look there!
Look there!’ Beth did look, and turned pale with delight

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